Nehemiah was a world class leader with the wisdom to pray first . . .

 

In late autumn, in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign,[a] I was at the fortress of Susa. 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem.

3 They said to me, “Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.”  (Nehemiah 1:1-4).

Nehemiah is one of my favorite biblical personalities:   he was a master organizer, a brave leader, and a man of deep wisdom who knew how to motivate people and used his insight and strength for good instead of for manipulation, power and control.   And unlike many people of uncommon giftedness (who find it easy to “accomplish” things on their own strength), he was a true person of prayer.

Nehemiah had ascended to a position as a highly trusted advisor to a pagan king in the most powerful empire in the world at the time–446 BC.   The king–Artaxerxes–was more than a little unstable at times.

The Jewish nation of the time had been evicted (after several hundred years of God’s warnings to turn from their rebellious tendencies) from their homeland for seventy years.   We call this the Babylonian Captivity.   The first chapter of Nehemiah takes place at the end of those 70 years, when Jews are moving back into Jerusalem, and re-establishing their presence there.

But the word reaches him (in v. 3) that Jerusalem’s wall–their only real source of physical protection in that era–was a pile of rubble around the city, and the people themselves were sitting ducks for attack.

This is profoundly troubling for Nehemiah:

4 When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.  (Nehemiah 1:4).

This strong, together leader was upset enough by the endangered state of Jerusalem that he apparently sobbed uncontrollably.   And “mourned, fasted, and prayed.”  For days.  Days . . .

Praying not for minutes or hours, but for days:  Is that unapproachable?   Maybe.    But sometimes we wonder why God doesn’t seem to answer a five second prayer we prayed, one time.   Or we binge watch Netflix but don’t spend more than a minute in prayer because we’re “too busy,” and then get mad at God because He doesn’t come through on our timetable.

We can learn from Nehemiah.  He occupied a high-ranking government position  in a powerful empire yet found time to focus on God, for days on end.

And here is the prayer of Nehemiah that God saw fit to preserve for us in the bible:

“O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 listen to my prayer! Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned! 7 We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses.

8 “Please remember what you told your servant Moses: ‘If you are unfaithful to me, I will scatter you among the nations. 9 But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth,[b] I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored.’

10 “The people you rescued by your great power and strong hand are your servants. 11 O Lord, please hear my prayer! Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you. Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me.[c] Put it into his heart to be kind to me.”

Nehemiah knew that the future of his people depended on whether or not the king would allow him to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the protective wall around the city.   He also knew that making such a request could possibly put his life in danger.   Being sad in the presence of the King, or making an unprompted request–in that era and context– could mean a death sentence.

Nehemiah had a plan–a very well considered plan that we see presented to the King in Neh 2.   But he had enough sense to pray first and plan later.

And what a prayer it is:

“O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 listen to my prayer!

Instead of starting and finishing with his request for help from the king, he immediately begins with worship, reminding himself of who God is–and where he stands by comparison–and stating attributes of God’s characters.   He also prays boldly:   “listen to my prayer!”.

Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned! 7 We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses.

Nehemiah would have been entirely justified in praying something like “even though my family and I stayed pure and worked hard to serve you and we are suffering because of the sins of those other deadbeats that disobeyed you, please forgive the deadbeats anyway.”    But he didn’t.  He prayed “we” have sinned, “even my own family and I”.   He took ownership of the sins–in a sense–of the rest of his people, and asked God to corporately have mercy on them.

8 “Please remember what you told your servant Moses: ‘If you are unfaithful to me, I will scatter you among the nations. 9 But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth,[b] I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored.’

Verses 8 and 9 are Nehemiah reminding God of his promises:  “Please remember what you told your servant Moses:”.

Nehemiah doesn’t do this because God forgot something.   He hadn’t become senile in His old age.   It seems strange to us to tell God to remember something, but we see this pattern of reminding God of his promises again and again in biblical prayers, especially in the Old Testament.

God doesn’t need to be reminded of His promises.   We need to be reminded of His promises.   They help us when we are praying–to have faith, trust, and confidence in God’s holiness, mercy, grace, love, and faithfulness.

In one sense, prayer is almost all for our benefit, as God already knows entirely what we are going to pray, what we need, the depths of our motives, and how He will answer.  But He values prayer above arguably any other activity a Christian can do.  He values time with us, and relationship with us, His dearly loved children.

10 “The people you rescued by your great power and strong hand are your servants. 11 O Lord, please hear my prayer! Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you. Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me.[c] Put it into his heart to be kind to me.”

Verse 11 exudes a combination of confidence and desperation:   “Please hear my prayer!   Listen to us!  Grant success!  Make the king favorable to me!”

And God did grant success.   Amazing success.   At every turn.   The first 6 chapters of Nehemiah are a fascinating study in true biblical leadership, and it all starts with prayer.  I encourage you to read them.

In Neh 2:2 a terrified Nehemiah risks his life by asking the king permission to take a team to rebuild Jerusalem.  He anticipates every potential need for the trip and the time there.  Once in Jerusalem, he faces insurmountable odds in clearing out the rubble, unifying a broken down people, facing down constant distraction and death threats from opposition, furiously defending the oppressed, boosting the morale of his weary and frightened people, and ultimately completing his mission to rebuild Jerusalem’s wall in only 52 days.  It all started with an extended prayer.